Fort Témiscamingue National Historic Site

Natural Wonders & Cultural Treasures

Cultural Heritage

The Fort Témiscamingue National Historic Site is located in the town of Duhamel-Ouest in Abitibi-Témiscamingue on a 27 hectare piece of land that juts into Lake Temiscaming where it narrows. Several landscape features and a considerable number of archaeological resources, both visible and buried, provide evidence of the site’s successive occupations.

The site as defined by Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada commemorates the trading post’s role in the fur trade for nearly two centuries, especially the fierce rivalry between the French and British to exploit the supply of pelts in Hudson’s Bay in the 17th and 18th centuries. The fort also serves as a reminder of the activities of the independent 18th century traders and the successive fur trade monopolies held in Témiscamingue, in the 19th century, by the North West and Hudson’s Bay companies.

Fort Témiscamingue was designated a site of national historic significance in 1967. The Canadian government acquired the property now administered by Parks Canada in 19701. The Commission plaque currently found at the site was installed in 1977.

Consisting essentially of archaeological remains, the fur trading post that once occupied the national historic site is now almost entirely invisible to visitors. A series of archaeological excavations have partially revealed its existence, through the many building remains and the large number of artefacts discovered. Traces of earlier occupations of the site by Aboriginal peoples were also uncovered in almost every sector in which archaeological work took place.

Algonquin, or Anicinabe, which means "men from this earth", occupy the territory for millennia.

1The boundaries of the site designated by Historic Sites and Monuments Board and those of the administered property may not coincide. Clarification from the Commission is needed.